Virginia Tech coach James Johnson pleads his case with an official during Wednesday’s ACC tournament loss to Miami

GREENSBORO – Wake Forest’s Jeff Bzdelik isn’t the only coach on the hot seat at this year’s ACC tournament.

After Wednesday’s opening-round 57-53 loss to Miami at Greensboro Coliseum, Virginia Tech’s James Johnson was faced with the inevitable question about his future.

Will he or won’t he be back for his third season as coach of the Hokies?

“I’m optimistic that I’ll be back and I’ll be the head coach here at Virginia Tech,” he said. “I look forward to coaching these young men and us moving forward.”

The decision might not be up to him, though. The former assistant under Seth Greenberg, who was hired to come back shortly after leaving to take an assistant coaching position at Clemson, has won just 22 of 63 games in his two seasons in charge. His ACC record is an even more unsightly 6-30.

This year’s team won only one game after New Year’s Eve and finished the season by losing 17 of its last 18 games. But it was also hampered by injuries that kept key players Adam Smith, Ben Emelgou, C.J. Barksdale and Cadarian Raines out of extended periods and forced the Hokies to play with only seven scholarship players.

Under the circumstances, Johnson would figure to get at least another year to try and turn things around.

His situation has been complicated, however, by the retirement of Jim Weaver – the athletic director that hired him – back in November. Johnson’s fate is now in the hands of new AD Whit Babcock, which whom he plans to meet within the next few days.

“My first thing I want to sit down and talk to my team and just get these guys together and talk a little bit about where we’re headed from now,’ Johnson said. “We’ve got to take some time off as a team. … Whit has been evaluating the program since he’s taken over the job and I’m sure we’ll sit down and talk and continue to evaluate the program and me and where we go from here.”

Freshman guard Devin Wilson, a member of this year’s ACC All-Rookie team, said he hopes Johnson is back in 2014-15.

“He’s the guy who brought me in here,” Wilson said. “I was a little under-recruited in high school and he had faith in me that I was going to come in here and produce. So having him back next year is going to be everything for us.”